1/16/25 - The Green Party of New York said that Governor Hochul’s State of the State failed to lay out the bold action needed to deal with the multiple crises facing New York. “Governor Hochul claims her 2025 agenda will deal with the economic problems facing working class New Yorkers, but her proposals are timid steps conditioned by corporate donors rather than the radical and swift action we need,” said Peter LaVenia, co-chair of the Green Party.

Green Party of New York
www.gpny.org

For Immediate Release
January 16, 2025

Contacts:
Peter LaVenia, Co-chair, GPNY [email protected] 
Gloria Mattera, Co-chair, GPNY [email protected] 

The Green Party released its progressive agenda for 2025, including ballot access reform to restore third party political rights, enacting Ranked Choice Voting and proportional representation, passing state-wide single-payer universal healthcare, and needed housing reforms including rent control, constructing one million units of publicly owned social housing. The party argued for immediate action on climate change and opposed Hochul’s steps toward nuclear power, and said that taxing the rich, including stopping the rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax, would help pay for needed reforms and social program expansion including reinvestment in impacted communities, rather than Hochul’s small “inflation rebate” and tax cuts. They said immediate action should be taken to protect immigrants in the face of president-elect Trump’s threat to deport millions, and that New York should divest from companies involved in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Green Party leaders said that working class New Yorkers have been hammered by inflation and steady erosion of the real value of their wages. They criticized Governor Hochul’s proposed “inflation rebate” as a political stunt that would do little to solve the structural problems of capitalism faced by working New Yorkers, and said that her call to cut taxes on middle class New Yorkers ignores the need to drastically raise taxes on Wall Street and the wealthy.

Rather than using $3 billion in sales tax revenue as a one-time refund, the Greens proposed directing that revenue towards social program funding like single-payer universal healthcare, education, publicly-owned social housing, free childcare for all, public jobs and public power generation with an ecosocialist Green New Deal. The sales tax windfall should be combined with stock transfer tax revenue – now collected but rebated – often estimated at $15-$20 billion a year, restoring tax brackets on the wealthy to their pre-1980 rate of up to 13%, and raising the state minimum wage to $25 per hour. 

“Governor Hochul has once again chosen to not seriously address the crisis of affordability for working class New Yorkers. Nearly 3 million New Yorkers struggle with housing costs, and combined with rising prices for basic consumer goods, childcare, education, healthcare, and declining purchasing power of wages, New Yorkers are hurting. The Governor has proposed small changes: down-payment assistance, rebuilding child care facilities, tax cuts, and $300/$500 checks to taxpayers. 

"As a party we believe bolder steps are needed. Housing reform is absolutely necessary, but the only way to get there is through public investment and ownership of housing. We need a committed program of public social housing that provides a million units for working-class and middle-class families across the state. Publicly provided, universal child-care would be a jobs program and would help the bottom line of millions of families here in New York. Free, equitably funded education through college for all New Yorkers would eliminate a source of serious household debt, especially for young graduates -- but Hochul’s timid proposal is limited to associate’s degrees for people 25-55 in a small number of fields. Universal single-payer healthcare – the New York Health Act – would allow all New Yorkers access to high-quality medical care and alleviate high premiums and co-pays. Raising the minimum wage to $25 per hour would begin to address the erosion of purchasing power due to inflation. This should all be tied into a robust, ecosocialist Green New Deal to rapidly transition from fossil fuels and nuclear power, and combat the climate emergency that is already here,” said Gloria Mattera, state party co-chair.

The party once again criticized the Hochul administration for failing to meet the deadlines laid out in the state's new climate law on how it plans to meet its relatively weak goals to reduce global emissions. According to a recent report by Dr. James Hansen, the world will have already passed the target of 1.5 degrees C warming before New York even adopts its legally required plan on how to reduce emissions. “No wonder the United Nations has said that governments' slow climate action has opened up the Gates of Hell. And delaying Hochul’s weak carbon pricing plan just allows more fuel to be thrown into the fire,” noted Mark Dunlea of the EcoAction Committee of the U.S. Green Party.

Hochul did lay out a number of small but important climate steps, but fell far short of treating the situation as a climate emergency. While the Governor’s speech did call for 500 MW of power to be provided to state agencies by NYPA, this falls far short of the legal requirement for reaching the 2030 deadline for 70% renewable energy generation. Noticeably absent again was any mention that Hochul intended to have NYPA launch a major expansion of publicly owned renewable energy as authorized in 2023’s budget, nor was there any mention of public ownership of the transmission grid. 

Hochul’s speech again fell far short on outlining a plan to begin investing the $10 to $20 billion of annual funding needed for a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy. The party said renewed talk of nuclear power, included in Hochul’s speech, was both dangerous and a sop to the nuclear industry and AI datacenters, which use unsustainable amounts of energy. The party also supports far greater funding for environmental justice and Just Transition programs.

“The climate emergency is at a crucial point. We must solve the climate crisis so that our children have a chance for a decent future. The Green New Deal, which we first called for in Howie Hawkins’ 2010 gubernatorial race, will also meet the economic needs of our state’s residents. Single payer health care would reduce overall healthcare spending while ensuring that everyone’s health care needs, including COVID, are met,” added Dunlea. 

In addition to funding Green New Deal initiatives, the Greens call for an ecosocialist Green New Deal to move rapidly towards a renewable energy economy. The party said it strongly opposes Governor Hochul’s cap-and-trade solution, and that the CLCPA was an example of the Democrat’s tepid response to the worsening climate catastrophe. They called for major subsidies to enact rapid decarbonization of all buildings in the state including heat pumps, geothermal, and energy conservation. Greens called for a rapid expansion of funds for mass transit and that all new vehicles should be electric by 2030. The Greens want a target date of zero emissions as soon as possible (2030), rather than the 30-year goal under the state law, which would still allow emissions to be 15% of 1990 levels. The party also backs an immediate halt to all new fossil fuel and nuclear infrastructure, increased public ownership and democratic control of the energy system and a robust carbon tax in all sectors to make polluters pay for the damages they cause with fossil fuels.

The Greens also said that New York State must become a gold standard for electoral reform. New York is an outlier in recent years, as most states have loosened ballot access laws rather than restricting them. Reform of ballot access laws would give New Yorkers more choices and help combat the widespread and continual corruption in state government from both the Democrats and Republicans.

“Democracy continues to be in a fragile condition in New York and nationwide, with both parties engaged in corruption and suppression of democratic rights. With Trump coming into office, why not take further steps to expand democracy here in New York? Disgraced former Governor Cuomo used the cover of COVID to kill independent small parties in the state budget. We demand the so-called progressive Democrats with a legislative supermajority who told us they opposed what was happening to have the courage to stand up and do what is right for New Yorkers. That includes raising the taxes on billionaires and other rich New Yorkers to close the massive budget deficit from COVID,” said  Gloria Mattera, state party co-chair.

“The plans outlined in the State of the State fall far short of what is necessary to affect the lives of millions of working class New Yorkers. We won’t solve the climate crisis or systemic racism or a host of other social problems until we embrace ecosocialism, putting the needs of average people and the planet ahead of the profits and well-being of a few,” said Peter LaVenia, state party co-chair.